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2014 JSI Seminar Series: Associate Professor Massimo Renzo

Human Rights and the Priority of the Moral
The main point of contention between "naturalistic" and "political" theories of human rights concerns the need to invoke the notion of moral human rights (i.e. rights that all human beings have simply by virtue of their humanity) in justifying the international practice of human rights. Political theories argue that we should bypass the question of the justification of moral human rights and start with the question of which norms and principles should be adopted to regulate the practice. Naturalistic theories by contrast, claim that a convincing answer to the latter question will have to presuppose some answer to the former. An adequate justification of the system of human rights included in the international practice will ultimately have to rely on some appeal to moral human rights. Associate Professor Renzo calls this view the "Priority of the Moral over the Political".